Monday, October 18, 2010

A humble tribute to great saga of yester years Parmahansha Ramakrishna as flashed by me on the f.b on October 18,2010.

Bishwanath Singh How many of us are aware that during the course of explaining the word trance in the poem The Excursion by William Wordsworth, Principal Dr. W.W. Hastie of the Scottish Church College, Calcutta had exhorted his students that if they wished to know its real meaning, they should go to "Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar” and t...hat had prompted some of his students including Narendranath Dutta (later Swami Vivekananda), to visit Ramakrishna!. Some of the people are unaware of this fact. Such was the towering personality of that great saint Paramhansha Ramakrishna who spent a major portion of his adult life at Dakshineswar Kāli Temple in Calcutta and worshipped the deity of Bhavatārini Kali.Let us have glimpse of his life in brief and pay our respectful homage to him together with our humble obeisance’s to his lotus feet to seek his bliss!
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Ramakrishna was born on February 18, 1836 by name Gadadhar Chattopadhyay.He was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda ....Both Guru (teacher) & Shishya(disciple) were influential figures in... the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu renaissance during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of his disciples and devotees believe that he was an avatar or incarnation of God.He is also referred as "Paramahamsa" by his devotees, meaning "Great Swan".Ramakrishna was born in the village of Kamarpukur, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, into a very poor but pious, orthodox Brahmin Vaishnava family in rural Bengal. It is said that Ramakrishna's parents experienced supernatural incidents, visions before his birth. His father Khudiram had a dream in Gaya in which Lord Gadadhara (a form of god Vishnu), said that he would be born as his son. Chandramani Devi is said to.. had a vision of light entering her womb from Shiva's temple. Ramakrishna was a popular figure in the village, with a natural gift for fine arts. Though he attended a village school with some regularity for twelve years, he later rejected the traditional schooling saying that he was not interested in a "bread-winning education".Kamarpukur, being a transit-point in well-established pilgrimage routes to Puri, brought him into contact with renunciates and holy men. He became well-versed in the Puranas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavata Purana, hearing them from wandering monks and the Kathaks—a class of men in ancient India who preached and sang the Purāṇas. He could read and write in Bengali. Ramakrishna's father died in 1843, after which time family responsibilities fell on his elder brother Ramkumar. This loss drew him closer to his mother, and he spent his time in household activities and daily worship of the household deities and became more involved in contemplative activities such as reading the sacred epics. When Ramakrishna was in his teens, the family's financial position worsened. Ramkumar started a Sanskrit school in Calcutta and also served as a priest. Ramakrishna moved to Calcutta in 1852 with Ramkumar to assist in the priestly work. In 1855 Ramkumar was appointed as the priest of Dakshineswar Kali Temple, built by Rani Rashmoni—a rich woman of Calcutta who belonged to the kaivarta community. Ramakrishna, along with his nephew Hriday, became assistants to Ramkumar, with Ramakrishna given the task of decorating the deity. When Ramkumar died in 1856, Ramakrishna took his place as the priest of the Kali temple. The name Ramakrishna is said to have been given to him by Mathur Babu, the son-in-law of Rani Rashmoni. After Ramkumar's death Ramakrishna became more contemplative. He began to look upon the image of the goddess Kali as his mother and the mother of the universe. He became seized by a desire to have a darshana (vision) of Kali—a direct realization of her reality—and believed the stone image to be living and breathing and taking food out of his hand. At times he would weep bitterly and cry out loudly while worshipping, and would not be comforted, because he could not see his mother Kali as perfectly as he wished. Rumors spread to Kamarpukur that Ramakrishna had become unstable as a result of his spiritual exercises at Dakshineswar. Ramakrishna's mother and his elder brother Rameswar decided to get Ramakrishna married, thinking that marriage would be a good steadying influence upon him—by forcing him to accept responsibility and to keep his attention on normal affairs rather than being obsessed with his spiritual practices and visions. Far from objecting to the marriage, Ramakrishna mentioned that they could find the bride at the house of Ramchandra Mukherjee in Jayrambati, three miles to the north-west of Kamarpukur. The five-year-old bride, Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya was found and the marriage was duly solemnised in 1859. Ramakrishna was twenty three at this point, but the age difference was typical for 19th century rural Bengal They later spent three months together in Kamarpukur. Sarada Devi was fourteen while Ramakrishna was thirty-two. Ramakrishna became a very influential figure in Sarada’s life, and she became a strong follower of his teachings. Their marriage is now seen in India, to be one of the most spiritual and perfect unions between a man and a woman. . After the marriage, Sarada stayed at Jayrambati and joined Ramakrishna in Dakshineswar at the age of eighteen. After his marriage Ramakrishna returned to Calcutta and resumed the charges of the temple again, but instead of toning down, his spiritual fervour and devotion only increased. To cultivate humility and eliminate the distinction between his own high Brahmin caste and pariahs belonging of low caste he would clean their quarters with his own hands and long hairBy the time his bride joined him, Ramakrishna had already embraced the monastic life of a sannyasi; as a result, the marriage was never consummated As a priest Ramakrishna performed the ritual ceremony—the Shodashi Puja–where Sarada Devi was made to sit in the seat of goddess Kali, and worshiped as the Divine mother. Ramakrishna regarded Sarada as the Divine Mother in person, addressing her as the Holy Mother, and it was by this name that she was known to Ramakrishna's disciples. Sarada Devi outlived Ramakrishna by 34 years and played an important role in the nascent religious movement. In the beginning of 1885 Ramakrishna suffered from clergyman's throat, which gradually developed into throat cancer. He was moved to Shyampukur near Calcutta, where some of the best physicians of the time were engaged. When his condition aggravated he was relocated to a large garden house at Cossipore on December 11, 1885. During his last days, he was looked after by his monastic disciples and Sarada Devi. Ramakrishna was advised by the doctors to keep the strictest silence, but ignoring their advice, he incessantly conversed with visitors.According to traditional accounts, before his death, Ramakrishna transferred his spiritual powers to Vivekananda and reassured Vivekananda of his avataric status. Ramakrishna asked Vivekananda to look after the welfare of the disciples, saying, "keep my boys together" and asked him to "teach them". Ramakrishna also asked other monastic disciples to look upon Vivekananda as their leader. Ramakrishna's condition gradually worsened and he expired in the early morning hours of August 16, 1886 at the Cossipore garden house. According to his disciples, this was mahasamadhi. After the death of their master, the monastic disciples lead by Vivekananda formed a fellowship at a half-ruined house at Baranagar near the river Ganga, with the financial assistance of the householder disciples. This became the first Math or monastery of the disciples who constituted the first Ramakrishna Order.

Bishwanath Singh This is the Picturesque view of Dakshineswar Kāli Temple of Calcutta where Paramhansha Ramakrishna had spent a major portion of his adult life worshipping Goddess Kali who had given personal audience to Him. Let us pay our humble obeisances to His lotus feet and seek His bliss for well-being of all living-being of this universe!

Anirudha Mohanta likes this.Anirudha Mohanta God or Godesses are illusion in mind of a human being that refuse to take nature's power as it is and bestowed it to imaginary power named God
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f.b.
October 18,2010.